Lineage of al Radi and his Life In the galaxy of the outstanding Shia Scholars two brothers from an eminent family of the descendants of the Prophet (saw) outshone all the others due to their extraordinary brilliance in their time. They were al Sharif al-Murtada, who occupied the chair of his teacher as his successor to the marji'iyyah of the Shi'ah world of scholarship, and his younger brother al-Sharif al-Radi,acclaimed to be a great genius of versatile talents, still unprecedented in the history of Islamic scholarship and Arabic literature. Al-Radi (359-406/970-1015) died young, much earlier than his elder brother,but left his mark on the history of Muslim thought and poetry, which in no way can be described as less significant than that of any other Imamiyyah scholar who lived much longer than him. He shone on the bright horizon of the fourth century Hijri, regarded as the most extraordinary period of all round intellectual and cultural renaissance in the history of Islam, lived for a short period of forty-seven years but generated enough light to lead human quest for excellence for centuries. Al-Rad'i's parents' lineage came directly from the Imams (as) of the Prophet's Family.
